The organic experience

Received our first batch of organic vegetables bought online last thursday.

We were quite ecstatic to see such luscious green and plump vegetables, many with roots still attached and with purplish tinge on them. The bananas look ordinary but tasted great.

We are organic converts.

First of all, why the switch? I tell people it's more a push than pull factor that drew us to organic produce (and whatever we can afford). Because reading about the toxins that go into our food these days scared the shit out of me and hubby. What those toxins can do to us, subtly everyday and in the long term, is stuff of nightmares. And learning about the politics of the food industry (and most every industries), we know that it is up to us consumers to make the informed choice for our own health. Regulations are simple insufficient and not always dependable.

But there are pull factors too. What about the superior nutrients and flavour of organic produce? So far, we have been very pleased with how the organic vegetables and fruits taste. Simply yummy. Although they're more expensive, at least it's worth the money and we're not paying for stuff harmful to us.

Let me quote from The Good Body Guide.

"A plant cannot make minerals. For a mineral to be in the food chain, it has to have been in the soil in the first place.... Slowly, we are beginning to realise that current farming practises give rise to acid soils, salination and ultimately, dessertification."

"... but there are other problems with synthetic fertilisers. Recurrent applictions tend to increase the acidity of the soil, reducing its fertility. This problem is widespread throughout the modern agricultural world. Many minerals.... can only be taken up by a plant when the soil is neutral - neither alkaline nor acidic. Even when soil analysis reveals adequate minerals, they may as well not be there if the soil is so acid that they're not available to plants."

"In a 2000 British study, David Thomas scanned past editions of the respected authority The Composition of Foods, by McCance and Widdowson, and found some alarming trends. The overall decline of calcium in all food and vegetables was 46 percent, of copper 75 percent. Carrots had lost 75 percent of their magnesium, broccoli 75 percent of its calcium. An Australian study conducted by the Organic Retailers and Growers Association of Australia was also compelling. It examined beans, tomatoes, capsicums and silver beet for levels of calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium, iron and zinc. Nutrient ranges in the organic products were commonly ten or more times higher than in commercial specimens."

"There is no reason to believe that there is any 'safe level' of substances such as lead, mercury or dioxin. Yet as they permeate the environment and the food chain, we have invented 'allowed limits', a neat way of side stepping the issue. The allowed limit implicitly admits that the substance can cause harm, but it also implies that at this level, it is unlikely to do so.... On the face of it, these criteria seem comprehensive. However they fall short by a long way of ensuring safety."

"The PCB or pesticide molecules pose danger because they are:
- toxic in their own right to nerves, the brain and other organs
- toxic to genetic material, and therefore potentially cause cancer and genetic mutation
- toxic to enzyme systems either through direct damage or overload
- gender-benders which can result in both malignancy and infertility"

I also want to caution about the use of preservatives. You know they're bad but here's more details.

+ Nitrites: The main usage is in cured meats for protection against the deadly organism Clostridium butolinum. They've been strongly linked to childhood cancer. (read the labels. Ham, sausages etc all contain high levels of nitrites)
+ Sulphites: These are usually present as sulphur dioxide. The ability to handle them depends on genetic factors. Their presence is associated with asthma, irritable bowel and migraine. (I always see sulphite in dried fruits. It helps preserve the fruits' bright colours. Luckily, I always go for the ugly ones without sulphites)
+ Benzoates: These are used to control the growth of yeasts and moulds. They are linked to behavioural disturbances and to the same illnesses caused by the sulphites.


I hope I don't sound preachy and longwinded. I just, you know, want to share what I think is really important. Maybe some of you already know all these. But I'm sure there are those who still don't. I mean, I wish someone would tell me all these stuff sooner so I could have lived a healthier life. That's why I share.

Anyway, here are the drool-worthy pictures of the organic vegetables from Green Circle.

My mum came for a visit the next day and I showed her the vegetables and fruits. We had ordered $41 worth of vegetables and our fridge's vegetable compartment was filled to the brim. I wanted to give my mum some. 

She wooh-ed and ahhh-ed at all of them and gave a lot of comments. The captions are my mum's comments.

Sweet potato leaves $2

 "哇! 这个番薯叶很美哦!" She was a bit sad that I only have one bunch and she couldn't take some home. She told me to let her know when I'm ordering again because she would like to order some too! :)

Pandan leaves $2

$2 for such a big bunch! Not expensive at all. I used some of it to cook sweet potato soup today. I couldn't believe my nose when I placed only 2 leaves in the bubbling hot water. There was an almost immediate whiff of fragrance! Very very fragrant. Hubby and I were still bemoaning that pandan leave these days have lost their flavour. Now we know where to get good ones!

By the way, the soup was delicious with the sweet potatoes, also organic of course. :)

Sweet corn $5.60

The website says these grown on their farm, are so good and fresh they can be eaten raw. My mum taught me to preserve the leaves to wrap rice and meat and steam! What a good idea! Oh, do you know the corn silk is very nutritious and when cooked in soup, the soup will be very sweet. You can also add hot water to the silk to make corn silk tea. Wow.

Sio bai cai $2.50

These shrunk so much after cooking! I must buy 2 packets the next time. They taste sweeter and crunchier then the commercial ones. But slightly more bitter too, though in a vege way, if you know what I mean. Hubby loves them!

Broccoli $15 per kg

 

Look at that purple tinge on the stem. Beautiful ain't it? And there's still so many leaves attached to it. Broccoli leaves, being the most nutritious part of the plant, can hardly be found on the commercial ones.

You'll never find such fresh organic broccoli at supermarkets, I think. And at Cold Storage, organic broccoli is $20 per kg.

This one tasted much crunchier then commercial ones, be it from Chine for Australia. It doesn't soften as quickly when cooked and retained a very pretty green colour. It was also yummier.

Lettuce $6.60

Considering how expensive commercial salad lettuce are, these are very cheap! And very safe to consume raw. Best of all, they're very YUMMY! My kids were practically fighting for them during snack that afternoon.

Mandy was going "Mmmmm. Very nice!" all the way chomping down on the raw lettuce. Such scenes make me very happy. :)

Oh and the purplish lettuce don't taste bitter at all, unlike the commercial ones which both kids shunned. This one, they liked. They finished a big plate of lettuce in minutes.

Brinjal $2.80

"They say, this kind of brinjals taste the best! Small with ugly skin, but very delicious!"

I'm cooking these soon. They're one of Mandy's favorite vegetable. So we shall see if my mum was right.

Ladies fingers $2.80

My kids adore ladies fingers. My mum said I will finally know how yummy ladies fingers can be after I tasted these. Ha. Looking forward to it.

Wild bayam (large) $2.50

I believe they're also called round spinach. Sharp spinach is phuay leng or 波菜. Correct me if I am wrong. They are all super nutritious.

"Wah. Very nice. See the purple tinge on the roots? These must be very nutritious." My mum thinks purplish roots = superior in nutrition.

She was so impressed she took back 2 of the roots (with leaves and stem still attached) and said she will try to grow them at home. In a POT! Ha. Good luck mum! She looked around and saw that I have another packet of spinach, so took one whole packet home. She also took some lettuce. I think she wanted to take more. Haha.

We also ordered 1kg of bananas which cost $4.

Aiyooooooooooo. I've never liked the small variety but this one..... *slurps* DELICIOUS!

I urged my mum to try one and she was like WOW! Nice! We agreed that these bananas have no siap siap taste. Not 涩, and so doesn't leave a dry aftertaste in the mouth like the commercial ones do. And these are very very very sweet. We're going to finish off the last few tomorrow. *sob*

Ok. So I've updated my online shopping experience for the few of you who are interested. If you have more lobang buying organic anything, please let me know too ok? Thanks!

By the way, the vegetables were mostly wrapped in papers/newspapers and loosely packed into a big crate when they came. :)

Hope you find all these information useful!

This new year

I had a great start to this year. It started with a short jog. It didn't matter that I only managed less than 3km (what with the grogginess and empty stomach and hubby's nagging to not overtire my body), what mattered was I managed to climb out of bed to do it! I'm hoping I'll keep up with it and stick to my resolution to exercise more this year!

Barry started his playgroup today and he did very well. Although, my presence and the teachers' choice of toys for the day (huge set of food toys!) helped a lot! Hehe. When it was time to keep toys, most of the children froze, but Barry, being well 'trained' at home to keep his own toys, set to work immediately. He knew exactly what to do. He even helped stack the baskets and placed the whole stack back into the shelf. He also listened to the teachers quietly, did what he was told, and generally not create any nuisance.

After class, he was a different boy from the weepy "I don't wanna go school!" one. He said he wanted to go to that school again. Of course little boy, you'll be going there for a long.. long... time. Hiak hiak.

Another resolution of mine is to eat, feed and cook more wisely. It's actually an ongoing task. As a person, and especially as a parent, it is in my opinion, of utmost importance that we provide good nutrition to ourselves and our family. I read in a book which said that as the kids grow up, there'll be less and less things that parents have control over, so we should really take note of what they eat, as much as we can. They do still spend a considerable amount of time having meals/snacks with us.

Their tummies are smaller, so whatever small amount of toxic, chemicals or substance harmful to our bodies will create a considerable bigger harm to theirs! Plus, because their tummies are so small, they get full easily. Adults can, say, eat half a packet of chips and still consume one bowl of rice and with vegetables, meat etc for dinner an hour later. Kids might not be able to do so.

Anyway, hubby and I had a wake up call about food after reading this book. Go read it. It should jolt you up and make you rethink what you eat. I'm sure you'll never see food the same way after you read the book.

I'm also reading a whole food encyclopedia. It's really fascinating! For example, do you know that brocolli contains twice the Vit. C than an orange and almost as much calcium as whole milk? Its calcium is also better absorbed than that of the milk. Wait, do not rush out to buy broccoli! Because if you read The Good Body Guide, you will also know that if the broccoli is not organic, it probably is grown on soil leeched of nutrients, sprayed with pesticides and therefore, the vegetable might not even give us much nutrients at all!

It's like you know fish is great but you pan/deep fry it and unknowingly destroyed what's so great about the fish in the first place.  Frankly, as I read more about food, I feel a bit cheated. Like tuna. It's a good brain food but did you know eating canned tuna doesn't give those purported benefits? You will have to eat it fresh. So, if you don't have these kind of knowledge, you end up wasting a lot of money, thinking you're filling yours and your family's tummies with good stuff.

Oh, since I'm on that. These are the fruits that have the highest level of pesticides residues: strawberry, apple, pear, raspberry, cherry, nectarine, peach. The vegetables that have the highest level of pesticides residues: sweet pepper, spinach, potato. celery.

Nonorganice fruits and vegetables that are essentially free of pesticides are: avocado, banana, onion, brocolli, blueberry and cabbage.

I've tried cooking some organic vegetables and I got to tell you I'm totally sold! Their flavour is far superior than the commercial ones. Try the,m! Cook lightly though, so you can taste the subtle flavours. They're much crunchier too!

Recently, the NTUC near my place is selling organic apples at $4+ for a big bag. What a steal. I bought a bag. The kids tried the apple first. After the first bite, they were oohing and aahing about how delicious the apple was! They are already fruit lovers so the apple must be great! We couldn't resist and had a taste too. You know what? Hubby quickly bought another bag the next day. Now, all the kids want to eat after their meals, is apples, apples, apples. :p

Oh, commercial apples are all artificially waxed. You know that. But do you know the wax contains crushed insects? Urgh.

Really. Go read The Good Body Guide. Please.

OMG. I can really go on and on about food. So back to this year. I've been on a row, cooking. Almost daily. They all tasted and looked good. *ahem* And I am happy in the knowledge that so far, my family HAS been filling their tummies with good stuff.

This is what I cooked for them a few days back:

Stir fried asparagus with abalone mushroom (I've since learnt that blanching asparagus is preferred)

Stir fried nai bai with carrots

Baked teriyaki chicken with ginger and abalone mushroom

Sweet and sour prawn

Actually I'm guilty. I love stir fries but they're not the healthiest. I haven't perfected the steam fry method. I'm always too lazy to reach for the wok cover. Hehe. And I should really steam and bake more lah.

We're looking to order organic vegetables online. Will let you all know how it goes. Very excited.

In short, people, eat well. The consequences of not doing so are far reaching. It can affect you 10 years later, it can affect you subtly without you knowing.I can go on about how some food choices have had unbelievable effects on us but you really don't want me to go on. Haha.

I am no health freak and I don't cringe when my kids eat a bit of junk now and then (I do too!). But toxic, that should be frowned upon. Toxic, my friend. So choose wisely.

Oh, I recommend this website: http://www.cornucopia.org/ There's an article on DHA and ARA found in milk formula. And others on hexane, eggs etc. Very informative.

Read. Eat. Exercise. Rest. And enjoy life!